SocGen reports huge slide in Q2 earnings

PARIS: Societe Generale SA said yesterday its net profit fell by 52 percent in the second quarter as the French bank took higher writedowns on derivatives and bad debts.

France's second largest bank reported net profit of 309 million euros ($445 million) for the three months ended June 30, down from 644 million euros a year earlier. Revenue rose 2.4 percent to 5.72 billion euros.

The Paris-based bank's earnings were hit by a total of 1.7 billion euros of what it called "non-recurring items", which included new writedowns on the value of credit default swaps it used to hedge its own exposures as well as the bank's financial liabilities.